Samsung Pay transactions hits $30M ahead of US launch

It only launched a month ago, but Samsung Pay has been used for more than $30 million's worth of transactions in South Korea, as the electronics giant prepares to open the service to U.S. users in a bid to challenge Apple in the mobile payments space.

In the month to September 20, Samsung saw 1.5 million transactions, with 10 percent of people using Samsung Pay daily, the company said on Wednesday.

Samsung Pay is the company's mobile payments system, which allows customers to store their card details in a "mobile wallet" and pay using their smartphone. The service is available on the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note5 phones, as well as the Gear S2 smartwatch—all devices that Samsung released this year.

The mobile payments space is heating up and Samsung Pay must compete with Apple's platform as well as Google's new Android Pay, which launched in the U.S earlier this month.

Gustau Nacarino | Reuters

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, March 2, 2015.

But Samsung claims its version is different. The South Korean titan said Samsung Pay works using near field communication (NFC) technology as well as magnetic strip technology, meaning retailers will not have to upgrade their point-of-sales terminals. The company claims this will allow Samsung Pay to work with over 90 percent of the world's retailers.

"The response we've received so far has been beyond our expectations," Injong Rhee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and global head of Samsung Pay, said in a news release.

Samsung Pay is part of the company's bid to diversify its mobile revenues and offerings, as the smartphone market begins to slow down amid intense competition.

The first figures on Samsung Pay came as the company gets ready to launch the service in the U.S. on September 28, followed by the U.K., Spain and China at yet unspecified date.

There are no comparative figures on offer for Apple Pay or Android Pay. The only benchmark available is a survey by PYMNTS and InfoScout released in August. This showed that in June, 33 percent of iPhone users opted to use Apple Pay in a store where possible—a sharp decline from 48 percent in March.